


Such Love and Hope Endure

by HathorAroha



Category: Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 22:38:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11473116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HathorAroha/pseuds/HathorAroha
Summary: Sick in bed with a high fever and flu, Lumiere is visited by the young prince one night, not wishing him to leave the same way the king’s wife had.





	Such Love and Hope Endure

Lumiere was sure he was going to die, either from drowning in his own sweat or from being attacked by his tangled sheets. The fever raged in his head, his joints ached like they had aged triple his age overnight, and all he wanted to do was sleep. His head pounded and ached, pulsing behind his eyes. Sometimes he wasn’t sure when he was awake or dreaming, but Plumette could never be a dream–she was always there, always at his bedside, holding his hand and looking after him. If he tried to speak even through a sore throat, Plumette would shush him, holding a finger against his lips. 

“Let me do the talking,” she’d insist every time, “You just rest.” 

But there was one night–one he’d think was a dream on getting well–when a knock at the door jolted Plumette awake in her armchair, Lumiere barely awake at the time. He closed his eyes again, even the candlelight still too much for him, hearing Plumette getting up and padding over to the door to open it a creak. He heard her soft gasp. 

“It’s past midnight,” Lumiere heard her whisper, “Why are you up, young prince?” 

Wait–what was the prince doing here? Lumiere could swear the prince he’d once known had already been lost to them, twisted to become as cold as his father. Perhaps this was all some fever dream. It had to be. 

Nevertheless, he couldn’t help a tug at his heart when he heard the ten year old boy sniffle as if through unshed tears. 

“He’s not gone is he? I woke up from a dream that he had…gone where mother had gone.” 

Plumette had long since become extra-formal in front of the prince, but even she could not remain so in front of a child’s fears for the loss of another close to his heart. Her voice lost all its formality at once, even dropping “prince” all together. 

“Oh Adam, no, he’s still with us,” Lumiere heard Plumette assure him in impossibly soft tones, “You just had a bad dream–I will make sure he stays with us all.” 

A long silence. Then–

“May–may I talk to him?” the prince whispered, “As long as father’s still asleep, he will not know I am up here.” 

“Of course you may,” Plumette allowed, and Lumiere could hear her moving aside to let the prince in–if he was really there and this wasn’t a dream. 

He opened his eyes to see the prince enter the doorway, looking somehow fearful and unsure at once. Lumiere heard himself bid the boy to come closer, not sure if he understood through the croaky, raspy tones his words had become. 

His heart hurt to see the boy looking so wary about approaching him, glancing back over his shoulder frequently not at Plumette, but at the still ajar door. Seeming to sense this, Plumette tip-toed to the door, pushing it shut as softly as possible. 

Now the prince stood next to his side of the bed, a hand coming up to rest on the blankets next to him. 

Lumiere tried his best to smile, or at least nod in acknowledgement. “Bonjour.” 

The prince’s hand flew up to clutch Lumiere’s hands laying over the top of his blankets over his chest. 

“I, Prince Adam, command you not to leave me,” the prince said in a shaky whisper, “Don’t go where Mama went.” A pause, then almost inaudible, “Please.” 

Lumiere’s heart ached at those pleading words, hearing how much the prince, even in his coldness, really did still care for him. He squeezed his hand with as much of his strength as he could. 

“I’ll try to.” 

Now the prince addressed Plumette, who had just settled down on the foot of the bed, watching silently. 

“See to it he holds to that promise?” 

Plumette gave the smallest of warm smiles. “I will.” 

The prince merely nodded, not really smiling at all, but Lumiere was sure he could see the look of fear leave his face a little. 

With that, the prince let go of Lumiere’s hands, turning around to head back to the door, only turning around to face them again in the doorway. 

“Plumette?” 

“Mm?” 

“Can–can you tell me if–when–he is better?” 

“I will, I promise.” 

With that, the prince shut the door, much more quietly than he normally did. Within minutes, Lumiere had drifted back to sleep. 

* * *

 

When he opened his eyes again, voluminous light was spilling in through the windows, the sun glinting off his bed posts. Plumette was still at his side, having some breakfast while in the armchair. As for himself, it took a minute to realise he wasn’t aching in his joints so much, the fever seemed to have mostly disappeared, and he felt more like his usual self. Still sick, but definitely not _as_ sick. He remembered vaguely something like the prince having been at his bedside, asking him not to leave “as his Mama did”, but he’d been so out of it he wasn’t sure if he’d dreamed it. 

“Plumette?” 

Plumette stopped halfway through raising her cup of tea to her mouth, setting it back down on a small table next to her. 

“Yes, my love?” 

“Was it a dream?” 

“What dream?” 

Lumiere shifted position so he now lay on his side, hand pillowing the side of his face. 

“Not sure if awake or asleep–”

“You’re awake now.” 

“No–I’m sure I was awake last night–saw the prince come in–”

Plumette set down her tea and got up, going over to sit next to Lumiere on the bed, interlacing her hands with his. 

“That was not a dream, Lumiere.” 

If Plumette said it wasn’t a dream, then it wasn’t. Then the prince really had come in, really had asked him not to go the same way as his late mother had. 

“Your hands aren’t so hot anymore,” Plumette observed, “You look like the fever’s going away,” one hand went up to lay itself over his forehead. “You’re definitely not as feverish.” 

“My joints don’t ache as much,” Lumiere added, “By midday I think I’ll be running around again.”

“No, Lumiere, you need to still rest!”

“I know–I’m sick of this bed.” Here, he offered a warm gaze into Plumette’s eyes. “But not you. Never you.” 

“Shall I tell him you’re feeling better?” 

“A little better,” Lumiere conceded, “And tell him thanks. For visiting. It means a lot.” 

“I will if I am able,” Plumette promised, “you still need to rest.” 

* * *

 

Within a few more days, Lumiere finally felt well enough to walk around again, his legs weaker than usual for want of activity. He’d be running around soon enough, but that didn’t stop him from wearing his usual lavish clothes again. Right now, he was making his way to the library, tipped off by Chapeau that the prince was in there, probably studying or at least reading a whole pile of books again. Indeed, he only had to look around a little to spot the prince at a table, half hidden under a teetering pile of books on his desk. Making his way over, he stopped before the desk, the prince looking up at once at the new visitor. 

“Hard at work, I see,” Lumiere commented, “Learning a lot?” 

The prince’s eyes widened on seeing Lumiere up and fully well again, and even his encroaching coldness of his heart could not hold back the relieved smile that lit up his blue eyes. Then that smile vanished almost as quick as it had appeared. 

“I need to study.” 

With that, the prince went back to his books like Lumiere wasn’t even standing there. Though it brought a jab to his heart, he still remembered that quick, relieved smile of the prince. Small comfort though it was, it still smoothed off the edge of the nearly immediate cool dismissal, surely only brought on by his father’s “teaching”. 

“You’re a clever prince,” Lumiere said by way of his parting words, “I will leave you to your study.” 

“Stay.” 

“Hm?” 

“In the library.” 

Lumiere laughed softly, “I think I’m the last man you could accuse of being a bookworm!” 

“You don’t have to read.” 

Lumiere nodded, understanding at once. “I’ll stay a while here, keep you some company, eh?” 

The prince went back to his study, but Lumiere saw the small nod of gratitude and thanks all the same. 

_Perhaps there is hope yet._


End file.
